Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Digital India by promoting Digital Health

My objective to do this post is to seek your opinion whether you would like to use Medzap or not. If your answer is yes, I seek your feedback on what more you would like to see in the product so as to use it every day. If your answer is no, I seek your feedback on how to make this product useful.

Let me start the post with the story on how we started MedZap

In August last year I was in the last month of my notice period from my employer, that is when I along with my co-founder started to deliberate on new ideas. We didn’t have any idea to work on but our vision was clear that we want to build something which will solve a real life problem.

Thinking of real life problems, I started to write down my routine mundane activities from last few months with the objective to find a real problem which I faced. Buying medicines was one of my regular activities (My wife was not really keeping well after we became parents). But was there a problem which I faced while doing this activity?

Yes there was. 2 out of 3 times I forgot to carry the prescription and thus had to go home to get the prescription. Also I used to forget the prescription at the chemists shop while collecting my medicines. Thus we decided to build Medzap to solve this problem.

We set out to discover what can be other use cases where people would like their health records to be available on their mobile. We discussed with people from India as well as other countries. Some friends from countries like France, Spain who travels frequently said they need a portable way to carry their doctor prescriptions so that they can refer them while travelling and don’t get into the hassle of managing paper records. Thus we were convinced about the idea of Medzap where the problem we are solving is “mobility and longevity of paper based medical records.”

Medzap is a simple application where user takes a picture of his/her medical records, adds doctor’s name & relevant keywords and saves the records. The record is then saved on the cloud and can be accessed anywhere anytime even if the user changes their mobile phone.

 

How it works:


Through Medzap we want to take forward the mission of “Digital India” by promoting “Digital Health“.




The data collected will help the doctors take informed decision based on the medical history of the patients. This data will also be used find the effectiveness of medicines. We have introduced doctor rating system also which will enable to get credible data on the doctors in your neighborhood.

We also ask the user to create his/her medical profile which include details like allergies, surgeries, life style, eating habits, job type, etc. This helps us analyze the common medical problems related to certain life styles, job types, etc.

In India, we take second opinions on our medical conditions. We have made this easier by integrating the app with the common messaging services like WhatsApp, Facebook messenger and also the social networking & emailing websites.

The app is free for users and we plan to keep it this way. From the economic perspective, the app also has an expense tracker build into it, which helps the patients to track the money spent on each doctor/pharmacy/lab visit.

I always give this example of the most common use case in India: the use of antibiotics for any medical condition. If you are changing doctor and the new doctor gives you the same antibiotics as the earlier doctor then you are not going to improve. So carrying the earlier medical records is very important when you are changing doctors. And we make this easier by providing the medical records on your phone.

In terms of competition there are similar apps but even Google drive and Dropbox are also our competitors. However Medzap has been built around a much focused use case of storing files on cloud. The app also interacts with the user to check about the user’s well being and rate their experience at the respective hospital.

This is a guest post by Amit Kumar. You can download our Android app here - Download Medzap. We welcome your feedback; please share it with us at setup@medzap.co

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

THE REAL ESTATE SECTOR IS SEEKING TO TIE UP WITH ONLINE REAL ESTATE STARTUPS

When the world is moving to the web, then how can the housing sector stay behind? The venture of new real estate startups is heading towards the online business, as it is one platform that can reach to millions of potential customers. The segment is seeking a consolidation that will lead to monetization. It is hoping to assure powerful business entities with the latest being the merger of CommonFloor with Quikr's realty vertical.


  • The growth of online real estate startups

Online real estate collaborations include PropTiger's purchase of Makaan-.com and Square Yards' acquisition of three companies in the past year. It is also reported that Housing.com is in talks with Snapdeal and News Corp for a stake sale. Apparently, over the past two years, the segment has attracted over $250 million, or Rs 1,600 crore in investments. This occurred during a period when realty sales were the slowest in India. The investments were made by Helion Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Accel India, Horizen Ventures, SoftBank Group, Qualcomm Ventures and Nirvana Ventures. It is believed that more mergers are currently happening as they are driven by the synergistic value created by the two companies for achieving goals faster. The mergers will be more for acquiring products.

  • The benefits of resorting to online business

Every business aims at offering value to their customers but also seek to gain maximum profits. However, profitability depends on the stage at which these companies are now. India is still at an early stage. A saturated market with too many competitors also reduces margins. At times, part of the amalgamation is taking place because of a founder's inability to take the business to the next level or sustain it in challenging market conditions.

Today, online real estate value chain has its base in transactions. Organizations are looking to control the advisory transaction space. Study reports reveal that more mergers and acquisitions are bound to happen in the area of search and discovery. This happens to be an area that has under-performed despite high levels of investment. The emergence of more mature business models is profitable and sustainable this year.

  • What is the future of such consolidations

The prevailing sluggish real estate market is expected to launch more opportunities for acquisition of entities that are grappling to move ahead. There is an enormous scope for consolidation, given that there is very limited capital available. Apart from that, there are plenty of opportunities available now. As the burn rate is quite low, some firms have been introducing multiple options, including fundraising and acquisition for future growth. General investors drive most of the acquisition after second and third rounds of funding, which are strategically running the companies. According to industry officials, consolidation will be quicker than the rate at which these companies entered the market.

So as we see, today, investors are enthusiastic and confident of fundraising by these startups. Now, companies themselves are looking for stronger partners to achieve growth. It can be concluded that with new acquisition proposals, online construction developers are on their way to creating a revolution in the real estate space.


This is a guest post by Deepak Yewale. The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NirrtiGo and NirrtiGo does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Transformation of Electronic city into the realty city

Electronics city is a hub of IT companies based in the Anekal taluk area of the Bangalore Urban District. It houses some of the most renowned companies of India like Wipro, Infosys, iGate etc. With Infosys purchasing Rs. 65 Crore worth of land from HP, the property scenario in the Electronics City area of South Bangalore has grown substantially.





Bangalore, which is also known as the Silicon Valley of India, is the IT hub of the country. With over 10 national plus MNCs operating in Bangalore, the Southern region has seen a substantial growth in both residential and office complexes, contributing a major portion to the Bangalore real estate market.

 

Electronics City

Southern part of the city holds the maximum number of IT companies in India. The location is always counted as prime because of the hot shot names attached with it. Because of the presence of top companies like TCS, Biocon, HCL and HP etc. the property rate in this region of Bangalore ranges from moderate to high prices. Attached to the prime parts of the city through BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) bus, the area’s connection is set to further improve after the launch of Namma Metro Phase II.

 

Property price:

The property prices in the Electronics City Bangalore are moderately priced as on December, 2015. For those who are not looking to invest in a property but are planning to reside there on rent, the prices are Rs. 7k to 11k for 1 BHK, 12k to 14k for 2BHK and 14k to 19k for 3BHK apartments

 

Demands of property investors

Property investors who are looking to invest in Bangalore are looking for following things in the city:
  • 2 BHK Apartments
In Bangalore city, 2 BHK flats are on a very high demand and have identified an unmatched growth because of a rise in prices and decrease in affordability. The 2 and 3 BHK flats constitute 90 percent of the realty market and especially the 2 BHK flats noted a demand of 54 percent, which is somewhat equal to the supply in the real estate market. This has made motivated many builders of the nation to launch similar property in Bangalore.

  • Studio Apartments
The concept of Studio Apartments is becoming very famous in the Electronics City area of Bangalore. The prime reason for this is the fact that the new buyers will most probably plan on relocating in the future or that they have small family sizes. It’s easier for the young professionals to pay EMI rather than paying 15k to 25k as rent every month, also it can be used for investment purposes in the future. Thus studio apartments count as being a feasible option for professionals.

 

Electronics city will turn smart

The Electronics City Industries Association (ELCIA) along with Cisco has developed a plan to make Electronics City, a Smart City. A 5-kilometre area has been noted where, over and above the parking and street lighting, other amenities, such as, water management, traffic management and security surveillance will be managed locally through information systems,intelligent sensors and the Internet to develop the quality and competence of the city amenities in the Electronics City area.

When ranged ahead of the 5-km stretch, this project will be launched as concept of a smart city next year.

Bangalore, especially South Bangalore is growing as the realty hub in India. Because of the presence of the world’s top IT companies in the locality, the prices will only increase. However, like any other investment, look for the reliability of the developer.

This is a guest post by Tripti, who has been in the writing industry for 2 years now. Her work ranges from articles on property to education and employment.